Donald Trump has repeatedly proclaimed himself a nationalist and a keen supporter of an "America First" policy in world affairs. In line with this nationalist approach, he has worked to undermine the United Nations -- sharply slashing its funding and withdrawing from its key agencies, including the World Health Organization, the Human Rights Council, and UNESCO. By contrast, polls show that most Americans have a favorable view of the work done by the United Nations and its agencies and want their country to engage closely with the world organization.
Published Articles by Lawrence Wittner
Ever since the atomic bombings of Japanese cities in August 1945, the world has been living on borrowed time, for major governments have been too committed to traditional thinking about international relations to resist the temptation to build nuclear weapons and threaten their use. Even so, thanks largely to popular pressure, governments have accepted some degree of nuclear constraint and nuclear war has thus far been averted. With a revival of public pressure and the implementation of measures to ensure international security, it still remains possible to safeguard human survival.
At a time when international cooperation provides the key to preventing a variety of global calamities -- including nuclear war, climate catastrophe, and massive starvation -- it's tragic that major nations, ruled by nationalist, rightwing parties, are on a collision course with the organizations that represent the international community. With the onset of World War II, most people finally realized that narrow nationalism had to give way to global cooperation. Let's hope that it won't take another world war or comparable catastrophe to convince people again.
Congressional passage of Donald Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" provides the latest evidence that human greed, despite its primitive nature, is alive and well. Although modern productivity can provide abundance for all, irrational men like Trump and his billionaire friends insist on wallowing in great wealth, even as millions of people live and die in poverty and misery. Gandhi put it concisely when he declared: "The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed."
Since the return of Donald Trump to the White House, he and his Republican allies have been working overtime to destroy the U.S. government's overseas humanitarian aid programs. Although the U.S. government has a lengthy record of assisting people of other nations stricken by hunger, war, and illness, such assistance is being rapidly dismantled, putting the lives of the world's poorest people in jeopardy. The result, according to the United Nations, is "a triage of human survival," with "114 million people facing life-threatening needs across the world."
Although Donald Trump has frequently billed himself as a "peacemaker" -- doing so at least 53 times during 2023 and 2024 -- his promises of peace have not been fulfilled. The primary reason for this failure is that, as his record indicates, he is much less interested in fostering peace than in expanding U.S. territory, military might, and power. Fortunately, however, institutions do exist that are genuinely committed to building a peaceful world.
Over the course of human history, military might has had dire consequences, including frequent wars, an enormous toll of death, injuries, and population displacement, immense financial cost, imperialist arrogance, military coups, and the diversion of resources from other areas of human life. Furthermore, military power has often been ineffective in safeguarding the national security that it is supposedly protecting. Rather than continuing to pour the wealth of nations into the failing system of national military might, how about adopting a less costly, more effective approach?
Despite much lofty rhetoric portraying the United States as a democracy, this nation has often resembled a plutocracy, in which the wealthy rule. The confusion owes a great deal to the fact that the United States, at its founding, was somewhat more democratic than its contemporaries. Another reason is that, over the course of its history, the country has gradually grown more democratic--although only by overcoming determined opposition from its traditional economic elites. The struggle between democracy and plutocracy continues today.
Amid growing international chaos, it should come as no surprise that nuclear dangers are increasing. Thanks to Donald Trump's evident unreliability, U.S. allies are now considering the creation of an enhanced nuclear capability, including the development of their own nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the nuclear arms race among the nuclear weapons-producing powers is escalating. But, with an approach grounded in international security, it is still possible to halt the slide toward disaster.
Although the nations of the world have pledged to respect a system of international law and global responsibility, the recent behavior of the governments of Russia, Israel, and the United States, based on the nationalist fantasies of their leaders, provides a sharp challenge to this arrangement. If humanity is to survive in coming decades, it is imperative that reckless competition and conflict among nations give way to cooperation and collective action. No nation can go it alone, for we are all part of one world and must act accordingly.